Kay Fate
Posted: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:21 am

From left, Cyril Jandro, Siegfried Schmidtke, Rod Quast and Dan Skluzacek stand in front of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Not pictured is Bob West of Faribault, who also made the Nov. 7 trip. The Washington Monument is in the background. (

“We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by.” — Will Rogers



But ask any hero, and that’s the most important part.

“When we got off the plane (at Dulles International Airport), the crowd of people that greeted us — there must have been 1,000 people there,” said Roland “Rod” Quast.

“It really surprised me that the younger generation is so involved,” he said. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. It touched everybody on the trip.”

“The trip” was the latest Honor Flight from Minneapolis to the nation’s capital to visit, among other sites, the World War II Memorial.

The Nov. 7 flight carried 104 Minnesota veterans and about 60 guardians. Among the passengers were Cyril Jandro, Dan Skluzacek and Bob West, all of Faribault; and Sigfried Schmidtke and Quast, both of Morristown.

All five men served in World War II.

Honor Flight, a national program, is designed to transport American’s veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices. Since its inception in 2005, more than 17,000 veterans have visited their memorials at no cost to them.

The goal is to take 25,000 veterans in 2009.

Top priority is given to World War II veterans or any veterans who are terminally ill.

The one-day trip “was a long day, but it was fun,” said Tracy McBroom, Rice County’s Veterans Service Officer who served as a guardian on the trip.

The flight left Minneapolis at 6:30 a.m., returning at 11:30 p.m.

“They were just all excited,” she said of the veterans. “They didn’t complain a bit — and went 100 miles an hour all day. We hit the ground running.”

The group spent about an hour and a half at the World War II Memorial, McBroom said, where a flag ceremony was held.

“I think it was special for the people who just happened to be there” during the ceremony, she said.

“I think they had a very patriotic lump in their throats.”

Still, it was the reception they received at each airport that meant the most to the men.

“It was kind of surprising,” said Jandro. “They treated us like kings,” waving flags, applauding and thanking the veterans for their service.

Jandro landed in England in 1944, on D-Day.

Thirty days later, he was on Omaha Beach; in December of 1944, he was on the left flank during the Battle of the Bulge in Germany.

The 86-year-old said the D.C. trip left him “pretty knocked out. The walking wasn’t too bad,” Jandro said, “but you’d have to spend a year there to see half the stuff.”

Skluzacek had never been to Washington, D.C., but described the trip as “a great thing.”

He earned a Purple Heart after being shot out of the water a couple of hundred feet from the shore of Iwo Jima.

Quast, who served in the South Pacific for two years, called the Washington trip “awesome.

“I never expected anything like it,” he said.

“It was quite a day for us old people,” Quast laughed. “I was a little leery at first, but I’m glad I went; it was the trip of a lifetime.”

He’d seen photos of the World War II Memorial, “but you can’t really appreciate it until you’re there.”



In 1946, when Quast returned to Morristown after his service, “I just thought we’d all done our job, and came home to our jobs from before. We got recognition right after the war,” he added, “but I guess the past was getting forgotten.”

With his 86th birthday approaching, Quast said he’ll likely not make another trip out east.

“I’ll stay home here, putz around, run the farm,” he said. “I still bale hay and I always have a big garden, and take care of the cattle.”

Washington, D.C,. “is a hustle-bustle place,” he admitted.

“I’m sure glad I went, though.”